System and method for determining a characteristic of an individual

ABSTRACT

A system and method for determining a characteristic of an individual is provided. The method includes determining at least one nonconscious element of an interaction by the individual and correlating the at least one nonconscious element with at least one identifiable demographic characteristic of the individual. The system includes a computerized medium having a human interface system situated to facilitate interaction with the individual and produce a quantity of data corresponding to the interaction. A programmable device is in communication with the computerized medium and is situated to use at least a portion of the quantity of data corresponding to the interaction with the individual to determine at least one nonconscious element of the interaction with the individual. A correlation system is situated to correlate the at least one nonconscious element with at least one identifiable demographic characteristic and output a quantity of resulting information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation in part application of copending U.S. applicationentitled, “Programmable method and apparatus for real-time adaptation ofpresentations to individuals,” having Ser. No. 12/053,064, filed Mar.21, 2008, itself a continuation application of U.S. Pat. No. 7,383,283,the disclosures of which are entirely incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is related to determining a characteristic of anindividual.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Semiotics is a theory of signs and symbols, specifically dealing withtheir function in both artificially constructed and natural languages,including syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics. Language in all formsis semiotics in action because whenever entities communicate, they do soby exchanging groupings of mutually agreed upon signs. Here, “languagein all forms” can be thought of as any interaction between entities (canbe the same entity) that results in conscious or nonconscious activityCulture, education, age, ethnicity, etc., all play a role in which signsare mutually agreed upon and how the signs may be used.

Whether people are born with an innate understanding of language isdebatable. Barring organic trauma, people are born with an ability tocommunicate wants, needs, and desires. At some point the innate abilityto communicate may be overlaid with an understanding of which specificinteractions produce which specific results (an example is “language inall its forms”). This point harkens to one of the rules of semioticinformation—“the first communication must be instructions on how tobuild a receiver.”

The construction of language from primitive communication takes the formof the acquisition of psycholexicals, or conceptual primitives.Conceptual primitives are the archetypes of language and often take theform of words that describe things rather than things in themselves. Forexample, “water” can be thought of as the conceptual primitive of ocean,lake, river, rain, etc. “Big” is closer to being a true conceptualprimitive because “big” is used as an adjective in most languages thatsupport such grammar constructs. Conceptual primitives are the buildingblocks of understanding and recognition of the individual's environmentand are the internal precursors of language.

The most basic conceptual primitives are binary and usually comprised ofmythic opposites such as “good” and “bad”. The child learning tolingualize its experience does so by interacting with its environment inthe presence of others with more developed language skills. What usuallyhappens is that the child's first lingualizing experiences of itsenvironment are polarity commands such as “come”, “go”, “hot”, “cold”.These lingualizations become conceptual primitives and place the childinto a mythic reality due to their polar, binary nature; somethingeither “is” or “is not”. Later the child learns that shades of grayexist and begins to experience sensory reality. Language develops whenthe child begins applying conceptual primitives to create more complexcommunications. These psycholexicals or conceptual primitives stay withthe individual long after sophisticated language skills develop andremain how the individual—regardless of age, gender, oreducation—initially internalizes information. Further, thesepsycholexicals are highly culture and language specific.

All language-using species create language semiotically. A childlearning to speak learns that certain sounds will be rewarded withcertain actions. This is first accomplished by making sounds to berewarded with objects in the child's immediate surroundings. The childsees a cookie and says, “Cookie”, to an American English speaker, thechild gets a cookie. If the child were from a different culture andlanguage set, saw a cookie and said, “Bistoli” to a speaker of onlyAmerican English, the child would be unrewarded. Language is awell-defined set of semiotic equations in which the signifier isculturally accepted as being psycholexically equivalent to the objectthat is culturally defined.

From this it is derived that any form of communication is a series ofsemiotic equations. Language is not limited to oral communication.Signed languages such as Ameslan, Singlish, Freslan, etc., contain thesame richness of concept spaces, psycholexical primitives, and so on.Further, language generation is not engaged only when the speaker isbeing heard. An individual that communicates frequently with handgestures will engage in many of those same hand gestures while on thephone. When a person is engaged with something on the television, thatperson may speak to the television without any delusion of being heard.

At the point where conceptual primitives become active in communication,they change role from conceptual primitive to modality. A modality is aconceptual primitive, which is active either consciously orunconsciously in the psyche of an individual and comes in two flavors:sensory and internal. Sensory modalities are those conceptual primitivesdirectly related to primate sensory systems (vision, hearing, etc.) asexpressed through information exchange and communication. Internalmodalities are those conceptual primitives by which information isexpressed both to ourselves and to others.

Methods of determining a characteristic of an individual have been usedin the past to identify features of the individual or interests of theindividual. These methods are sometimes used to identify theindividual's interests for marketing purposes, such as targetedmarketing practices where a consumer who is likely to purchase a productor use a service is subjected to enhanced marketing. However, thesemethods involve direct interaction by the individual, such as byprompting the individual to consciously submit information. Generally,information that is consciously submitted is done so throughquestionnaires, forms, click-boxes on web sites or other types ofquestioning, such as oral questioning. Gathering information related toa characteristic of an individual in this way is frequently cumbersome,time-consuming and unwanted by the individual being targeted. As aresult, the information may be hard to compile and may also beinaccurate, as the individual targeted may fail to provide someinformation, or provide falsified information.

Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to addressthe aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a system and method ofdetermining a characteristic of an individual. Briefly described, inarchitecture, one embodiment of the system, among others, can beimplemented as follows. The system contains a computerized medium havinga human interface system situated to facilitate interaction with theindividual and produce a quantity of data corresponding to theinteraction. A programmable device is in communication with thecomputerized medium. The programmable device situated to use at least aportion of the quantity of data corresponding to the interaction withthe individual to determine at least one nonconscious element of theinteraction with the individual. A correlation system is situated tocorrelate the at least one nonconscious element with at least oneidentifiable demographic characteristic and output a quantity ofresulting information.

The present disclosure can also be viewed as providing methods ofdetermining a characteristic of an individual. In this regard, oneembodiment of such a method, among others, can be broadly summarized bythe following steps: determining at least one nonconscious element of aninteraction by the individual; and correlating the at least onenonconscious element with at least one identifiable demographiccharacteristic of the individual.

The present disclosure can also be viewed as providing a computerreadable medium to determine a characteristic of an individual. In thisregard, one embodiment of a computer readable medium, among others, canbe broadly summarized by the following: program code to produce aquantity of data corresponding to an interaction of the individual witha computerized medium; program code to use at least a portion of thequantity of data corresponding to the interaction of the individual todetermine at least one nonconscious element of the interaction with theindividual; and program code to correlate the at least one nonconsciouselement with at least one identifiable demographic characteristic andoutput a quantity of resulting information.

Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the presentdisclosure will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art uponexamination of the following drawings and detailed description. It isintended that all such additional systems, methods, features, andadvantages be included within this description, be within the scope ofthe present disclosure, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood with referenceto the following drawings. The components in the drawings are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system for determining acharacteristic of an individual, in accordance with a first exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a method of determining a characteristic ofan individual, in accordance with a second exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of instructions for a computer readable mediumencoded with computer readable program code to determine acharacteristic of an individual, in accordance with a third exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure uses psychometrics, a concept related tobiometrics except that the technology relates to a person's thoughtpatterns as opposed to biological traits. The difference allowspsychometrics to generate value in applications presently addressed bybiometrics as well as applications for which biometrics is too limited.Therefore the detailed description of the claimed disclosure is brieflyprefaced with an enabling description of psychometrics as it relates toone of many applications.

Psychometrics relies on principles from psychomotor research. Oneapplication of the present disclosure combines psychometrics and thelatest in web technologies to link what happens in the viewer's mind towhat happens to the mouse and keyboard to what happens to the machineinterface focal point (e.g., a cursor) to what happens on the screen.The following definitions establish the context with which to understandthe present disclosure:

1) The person sitting at their computer, browsing a website, is theviewer;

2) The viewer is looking at web sites or other electronic interfaces viaa browser;

3) The viewer's browser is at least partially controlling what isdisplayed (parts of web pages, new web pages, etc) on the computermonitor by hand motion on a pointing device called a mouse and bykeystrokes on the keyboard;

4) The mouse has a symbolic representation on what is displayed via themachine interface focal point (e.g., a cursor);

5) The viewer navigates the browser by using the mouse to move themachine interface focal point and then clicking on an action item on thecurrently presented page;

6) Whatever is currently shown in the browser window may be viewed as asingle presentation from the web site. This current browser window mayconsist of frames and other complexities but still represents a singlepresentation to the viewer. A presentation may include other output,such as audio transmissions, for the viewer; and

7) The machine interface focal point and presentation are the interfacebetween the viewer and the web server which is delivering content to thebrowser for display.

People, regardless of cultural origin or life experience, have apsychometric tendency known as “egocentric localization.” Anindividual's egocentric localization is their sense of where their bodyis positioned relative to other objects in the external environment.Thus, our viewer knows intuitively that they are sitting at theircomputer, knows where the computer is in relation to where they aresitting, knows where the keyboard is having only glanced at it once,knows where the mouse is having only glanced at it once, etc.

Individuals also have the ability to perceive the distances betweenobjects within their environment. This ability is known as“object-relative localization.” Object-relative localization means notonly does the viewer know that they're sitting, that they are looking attheir monitor to see their browser, that their hands are at or near thekeyboard, and that one hand may be on the mouse from time to time, butit also means that the viewer intuitively knows the distances andspatial relationships between the monitor, the keyboard, the mouse,their seat, the top of their desk, etc.

It is important to remember that all this is being done nonconsciously.

As you read this, you are engaged in a flurry of activity of which mostpeople are totally unaware. You are demonstrating a cognitivepsychomotor process called “selective attention in vision.” This meansyou're reading parts of this text, basically breaking the entiredocument into separate elements which are more easily visually digestedand processed. The reason you are demonstrating selective attention invision is because when you read, when you look at a picture, when youlook at anything that requires the processing of non-rememberedinformation, you are performing a “visual search task” and the search isfor “pictoral or monocular cues” which cause your eye to tell your brainthat the information your mind is seeking has been found. These conceptshave a vast history in neuroscience and cognition studies.

Studies indicate that everyone projects their internal reality ontotheir external world. This is known as “mapping.” As you read this,chances are you're making evaluations of what is written—deciding if youagree or disagree. In either case, you're taking your internal reality(the decision to agree or disagree and the thoughts that led to thatdecision) and projecting it onto your external world (these words asthey appear in your browser or on a printed page). You're applying apart of your internal reality—what makes sense, what's valid, whatyou're willing to accept as true—and using it as a test for somestimulus in your external world—the information being offered herein.

When you take action based on some projection of your internal realityonto your external world, you've demonstrated a “cognitive-motor map.”The “map” part we explained above. The “motor” part comes from theaction taken. The “cognitive” part comes from the decision you madeafter doing some information processing. All of these parts deal with“eye movement and information processing.” Eye movement and informationprocessing are closely related because one cannot happen without theother. Even someone staring off into space thinking is nonconsciouslyperforming minute contractions of the eye muscles as thoughts slide intoand out of place.

Because human beings are wired the way they are, your body tracks whereyour eyes are looking. Unless we're being coy or trying to see somethingwith peripheral vision, we tend to “face things head on.” This isespecially true when we're searching for something (as in “visual searchtask”). We “face tasks head on” because it allows us to bring the fullimplementation of our cognitive-motor maps to bear on the problem; botheyes are focusing on the target, the ears are equidistant and ourauditory system is focused, even our hands tend to go into acquisitionalbehavior (you're ready to reach for something). When using the computerour hands normally do not come off the keyboard or the mouse until weare done processing and begin evaluating (mapping). Then, at some point,our hands go back to where they were . . . almost. For example, movingyour hands from mouse to keyboard or vice-versa. This action indicatesthat some nonconscious decision was made to operate differently in theenvironment.

Because people all over the world are physiologically wiredsubstantially similarly, people all over the world have “sensory motorlearning” experiences. As a child learns to catch a ball, they getbopped by the ball a few times before they learn to coordinate whattheir eye sees with what their hands do. Sensory motor learning isnecessary because normal perceptual development depends upon activebodily movement under higher sensory (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)guidance. But there are two aspects to sensory motor learning. Theaspect of motor learning that occurs watching TV or going to the theateris called “exafference.” Exafference is stimulation that acts upon apassive observer. The second aspect of motor learning involves more“audience involvement” and is called “reafference.” Reafference isstimulation that changes as a result of an individual's ownmovements—like moving your mouse or using your keyboard to alter theinterface that appears in your browser.

Finally, the “stimulus control and attention” concept tells us that anindividual's attention tends to focus where that individual is able tocontrol the amount of stimulus given. When you work on a car, you want agood light to see what you are doing. You focus the light in the area ofthe car you are working to see better. And, of course, the light allowedyou to focus your attention on a certain part of the car, bringing itinto better visual focus than the other parts in the car.

A viewer is sitting at a computer, using a browser to perform a visualsearch task and something in the presentation provides a pictorial ormonocular cue that causes the viewer's brain to suspend eye movement.The suspended eye movement signals the viewer's mind to alter theinformation processing it is doing, briefly. Whatever this pictorial ormonocular cue was, the viewer's brain needs to control the amount ofstimulus in order to focus the viewer's attention. These actions arewhere sensory motor learning and reafference come in to play. The viewerwill focus attention by using the mouse or keyboard to move the machineinterface focal point or enter some data (a command, text, etc.) towhatever caught the viewer's attention. These actions may, and likelyall, happen nonconsciously.

Even if the viewer's hands were tied so that they could only come freewhen the viewer was ready to request the next presentation, the sensorymotor system knows where your attention was and will not rest until ithas done its job. Its job is to make some part of the viewer's body makesome kind of movement in the cue's direction (even when there aremultiple cues being processed). The movement may be minute, but it willhappen unless the viewer has tremendous physical training and control toresist the movement. The viewer's eyes go where the mind was and thehands are sure to follow. In the case of a web browser, the cursor (orany machine interface focal point), an extension of the hands, willfollow.

Psycho-, socio-, and neuro-linguistics teach that at the highest level,everybody has the same maps because everybody has the same set ofsensory apparatus. These same three disciplines teach that as you godeeper and deeper, everybody's maps change to the point where you cantell from a single sentence much about an individual's life and state ofmind.

As described herein, people project their internal reality externally.This projection helps us know who we are, our boundaries, our limits,our friends and our neighbors. When a viewer is sitting at a browser,the viewer projects their internal reality onto the presentation in thebrowser window.

When the viewer projects their internal reality onto the presentation,they are looking for something to connect to, something which isfamiliar at some level and to which they can use as a reference foreverything else on the screen. Individuals do this in the real world viathe sense of egocentric localization. Individuals do this in the virtualworld by using the cursor (machine interface focal point) and thebrain's abilities to recognize patterns and discriminate familiarpatterns from less familiar ones. In a very real sense, the cursor takesthe place of our hand. Thus, an individual's “virtual” egocentriclocation is referenced by the cursor's position on the screen.

Just as virtual egocentric localization occurs when an individual findsout where the cursor is within the presentation, object-relativelocalization occurs when the individual determines where everything elseis on the screen in relation to the cursor (hence the term ‘machineinterface focal point’). Once the viewer finds out where everything ison the screen via a quick glance, they start parsing. It doesn't matterif they are reading text or looking at pictures, the viewer will parsethe presentation into easily processable pieces of information. Thisespecially occurs if the viewer wants to remember the information.

To be clear, people don't “read” web pages as they “read” a book.Usually they scan and, when scanning, they tend to use a stimuluscontrol to focus their attention on what they are reading becausethere's so much visual noise on the page they can't focus otherwise.Stimulus control is the individual in the guise of the machine interfacefocal point. On the computer, we control stimulus via the mouse andkeyboard. Specifically, parsing the presentation requires anindividual's body to match their selective attention in vision toselective movement in the body due to sensory-motor learning andreafference. In other words, where the eyes go, the cursor (machineinterface focal point) will follow. The association of eyes and cursorcan be accomplished by using a mouse to move the cursor to where theeyes are going, by scrolling a page to bring the location where the eyesare going to the cursor, or otherwise utilizing one or more inputdevices to bring the cursor and object of the eyes into at least partialalignment.

Humans have as many modalities as they have senses (which exceed thefive primary senses taught). For example, if a viewer is sitting attheir browser looking at a presentation and a pictorial or monocular cueoccurs, if their hand is on the mouse or keyboard, the cursor (machineinterface focal point) will move minutely if not grossly (in the senseof motor movement) towards that cue. There is a definite distanceassociated with the movement of the cursor from where it started towhere it ended up. Before the viewer clicks on anything, the viewer ismerely attempting to focus their attention by controlling the stimulus.Because the presentation (as presented on a computer monitor) isbasically a two dimensional grid, the path the cursor takes, which isgoverned by the viewer's mouse movement, can be measured as:f(distance)=Dx+Dy

There is more than just linear distance associated with moving thecursor (machine interface focal point). Forcing the viewer to visuallysearch for pictorial or monocular cues on a presentation is highlydesirable because doing so takes time. When we add time to the simpleequation above we get something more like this:f(movement)=(Dx/Dt)+(Dy/Dt)

Also, a path is not a simple (X1-X0)+(Y1-Y0) distance. A path, like apath in the woods, means avoiding things, going around others, takingthe best route possible when the egocentric localizing viewer determineswhat is around in the object-relative localizing way. Even though theactual mouse motions may have been minute, the viewer was parsing thatinterface to focus attention. Therefore, the equation more resembles:f(sensory motor activity)=*t((dx/dt)+(dy/dt))

But the sensory-motor activity is tied to the cognitive-motor mapbecause the brain (cognitive) is telling the body (motor) what to dobased on what the eyes are telling it (sensory). Specifically, the brainis doing lots of work to direct attention to what the mind wants to knowand it's doing it along sensory modality channels, so the equation isreally:∫_(x)∫_(y)∫_(t)(attention)∂x∂y∂t=∫ _(x)∫_(y)∫_(t)(*(sensorymodality)f(modality)(∂x/∂t)+*(sensorymodality)f(modality)(∂y/∂t)+*(sensory modality)f(modality)(∂t/∂x)∂x∂y∂t

The best part about this equation is that the *(sensory modality)f(modality) parts—which relate to the visual, auditory and kinestheticsensory modalities—of the above equation are fairly well known and havebeen documented for about the past 25 years. Also, these equations arethe reduced form of the general technology equationf(attention)=_(j=1)Γ^(∞)(Σ_(i)f(modality_(i))(δj/δt)·_(j=1)Γ^(n)(δj/δt)(d ^(n) i/dt ^(n))

∥j=dimension counter, i=modality counter,

which accounts for a plurality of environments and a plurality ofdegrees of freedom within that environment.

The science surrounding psychomotor behaviors has been developing forsome time. However, the application of the science to determining acharacteristic of an individual is new. As individuals continue tobecome more accustomed to using digital devices, and activities hostedon digital devices, the concept of tracking an individual's nonconsciousbehaviors using the digital devices becomes increasingly convenient.

Programmable code within a software program can track cursor (machineinterface focal point) movement through time (meaning velocity andacceleration, relative position and distancing). The software programmay send a string of variables back to the web server. This string ofvariables can contain a string of (X,Y,T) triplets decoded byserver-side software to determine movement through a grid and time ineach quadrant (the quadrant sizes can be manipulated as dictated bypresentation needs). When grid movement is determined, the modalitysummations can be selected to determine if the viewer's attention isfocused on visual, auditory, kinesthetic or other related cues.

Based on the results of this equation, the web server can prepare inreal time what the next presentation and interface should be in order tocapture more of the viewer's attention by presenting the web content inmodalities which the viewer has nonconsciously selected. Thus, contentis directed via a smart web server to a viewer based on the viewer'snonconscious selection.

Returning to a previously discussed equation:f(movement)=(Dx/Dt)+(Dy/Dt), movement is the measure of cursor movementover the presentation. From any starting point on a presentation, thecursor movement is a series of ordered doublets, ((X,T), (Y,T)), where Xand Y represent distance along a Cartesian grid, for example, and T isthe time of each movement. There are several software packages andsoftware languages that monitor cursor movement over a presentation forthe purposes of pop-ups and the like, and there are several inputdevices for moving the cursor other than with the mouse. All of thesemethods are commonly available over the Internet and the input devicesand associated operation language do not constitute a unique part ofthis disclosure.

Each presentation sent by the present system carries a set of specificmeta-tags. One of these meta-tags acts as a session-id. Eachpresentation itself is mapped to an interface grid, which is useful forthe scripting language of the disclosure. The interface grid may have aseries of reference targets that allow the system to know where theoriginal cursor position was on each presentation by determining Dx andDy via cursor movement before crossing any reference target. It has beendemonstrated that the complexity of any presentation system can bedetermined by the equation: 1/a+1/.beta.+1/.gamma.=1 where a, .beta. and.gamma. represent the complexity of the presentation format, the webserver and the data server respectively. Each of these variables can betiered so that the above equation can represent a very large web system.It was also demonstrated that it is possible to atomize any presentationso that the most minute changes in the presentation can be managed by asufficiently designed server system. The user of web server, dataserver, etc., are for the simplified discussion of a web system. Thesystem and the equations given may be part of an Information DrivenPresentation Architecture.

When a known viewer requests a presentation through the system of thepresent disclosure, they are sent an instantiation, which may be aunique presentation. The web server system also sends the instantiationto the engine. The instantiation also contains the vieweridentification. As the viewer moves about the presentation, theirinterface collects ((x,t), (y,t)) doublets and sends them back to theengine at some interval which is determined from the above equation. Theengine uses these doublets and the present instantiation as data for theequations, which allows the engine to determine a viewer's modalitiesand attention.

The present disclosure is directed to determining a characteristic of anindividual. FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system 10 fordetermining a characteristic of an individual 14, in accordance with afirst exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The system 10includes a computerized medium 20 having a human interface system 40.The human interface system 40, which is situated to facilitateinteraction with the individual 14 and produce a quantity of data 30corresponding to the interaction. A programmable device 50 is incommunication with the computerized medium 20. The programmable device50 is situated to use at least a portion of the quantity of data 30corresponding to the interaction with the individual 14 to determine atleast one nonconscious element 60 of the interaction with the individual14. A correlation system 70 is situated to correlate the at least onenonconscious element 60 with the at least one identifiable demographiccharacteristic 75 and output a quantity of resulting information 80.

The computerized medium 20 may include any computerized system,terminal, network or database. Generally, the computerized medium willbe the personal computer of the individual 14. However, the computerizedmedium 20 may also include any other computerized system, such as aserver hosting a website or a network of computers in communication. Thecomputerized medium 20 may also include other computerized devices suchas a cell phone, an MP3 player, a personal digital assistant, a computersystem within an automobile, train or plane, a television, a homesecurity system, or any other computerized medium known to those havingordinary skill in the art.

The computerized medium 20 has at least one human interface system 40,which is situation to facilitate an interaction with the individual 14.The interaction may include an influence or any number or type ofactivities. If more than one interaction is present, it may beindependent or dependent on another interaction. The interaction may becharacterized as an action or influence that is capable of being sensedor detected by an object or entity.

The computerized medium 20 may produce a quantity of data 30corresponding to the interaction. The quantity of data 30 may beproduced in any form, including, but not limited to computerized data,textual data and electronic data. A variety of other types of quantityof data 30 may also be produced, as would be recognized by one havingordinary skill in the art. Generally, the interaction is one that iscapable of being transposed in the computerized medium 20, or theinteraction is an influence of or on the individual 14 that can besensed or detected by the computerized medium 20. Common examples of theinteraction may include moving a mouse such that a cursor (machineinterface focal point) is moved on a display screen. Likewise, engaginga key on a keyboard or engaging a touch screen display device may alsobe an interaction that can be used to produce the quantity of data 30.Other types of interactions may be detected in other ways, such as bymonitoring the eye movement of an individual 14 or by monitoring anotherphysical trait of the individual 14.

The interaction with the individual 14 may occur through physicalcontact or without physical contact. In either case, a human interfacesystem 40 may be the primary component of the computerized medium 20 tofacilitate the interaction, and is situated to facilitate interactionbetween the individual 14 and the computerized medium 20. Accordingly,the human interface system 40 may include a mouse, a keyboard, aneye-monitoring system, a touch screen and/or a microphone. The humaninterface system 40 may also include any other systems to facilitateinteraction, which may include facilitating interaction with a consciouselement in addition to the nonconscious element 30. The human interfacesystem 40 may also include a human interface output, such as a displayscreen notification, an audible notification, a written notification, orany other notifying action, such as allowing entry into a secured area.Any human interface output included within the system 10 is consideredwithin the scope of the present disclosure, however, a human interfaceoutput is not required. The human interface system 40 may also includeother systems to facilitate interaction with the individual 14, and mayinclude any components or combinations of components that are known tothose skilled in the art to be used in facilitating a human interactionwith a computerized medium 20.

A programmable device 50 is in communication with the computerizedmedium 20. As illustrated in FIG. 1, all components within thecomputerized medium 20 may be in communication with each other.Therefore, the programmable device 50 may be in communication with anycomponents of the computerized medium 20, such as the human interfacesystem 40. The programmable device 50 is situated to use at least aportion of the quantity of data 30 corresponding to the interaction withthe individual 14 to determine at least one nonconscious element 60 ofthe interaction with the individual 14. The communication between theprogrammable device 50 and any other component may be created by anyknown connection, including a wireless connection, a hard-wiredconnection, a network connection or an integral connection. Theprogrammable device 50 may also be hosted or incorporated within anyother component of the system.

In FIG. 1, the programmable device 50 is illustrated as being hosted inthe computerized medium 20. However, the programmable device 50 maycommonly be hosted in or integral with the human interface system 40, orit may be external to both the computerized medium 20 and the humaninterface system 40. The programmable device 50 is situated to determineat least one nonconscious element 60, which may be any mentalfunctioning of the individual 14 that is not represented inconsciousness. Commonly, the at least one nonconscious element 60 of theindividual is a psychomotor behavioral element of the individual 14.

The correlation system 70 is situated to correlate the at least onenonconscious element 60 with at least one identifiable demographiccharacteristic 75 and output a quantity of resulting information 80. Thecorrelation system 70 may include a variety of systems capable ofcorrelating data, such as a computerized system having programmable codeor a non-computerized electronic correlation system. Correlating thenonconscious element 60 with the at least one identifiable demographiccharacteristic 75 of the individual 14 may be used to produce at least aportion of the quantity of resulting information 80. Additionally, thecorrelation system 70 may also include a variety of other actions beyondproducing resulting information 80, such as performing a comparison ofdata, analyzing data, retrieving information from a database, executinginstructions identified by a programmable code and storing data orinformation.

The identifiable demographic characteristic 75 can be any distinguishingtrait, quality or property that the individual 14 has. Commonly, theidentifiable demographic characteristic 75 will be the individual's 14age or gender, or a combination thereof. The identifiable demographiccharacteristic 75 may be one that is determined within a certainparameter of precision, or it may be given within a broad parameter. Forexample, if the identifiable demographic characteristic 75 of theindividual 14 is age, then the age may be given in terms of an upperand/or lower limit, such as older than 50 years old or younger than 30years old. Additionally, the age may be given in a range, such as wherethe individual 14 is determined to be between the ages of 25 and 30, orthe age plus or minus a number of years, such as 27+/−2 years, or theage may be given by descriptive terms, such as “young” or “old.” Allranges and limits may be given and are considered within the scope ofthe present disclosure. Likewise, if the identifiable demographiccharacteristic 75 is gender, the output will include informationindicative of whether the individual 14 is a male or female.

The system 10 may also include other features and functions. The system10 may be able to output information associated with an identifiabledemographic characteristic 75 that indicates a degree of precision oraccuracy of the identifiable demographic characteristic 75. For example,the system 10 may output an identifiable demographic characteristic 75that the individual is a male or female within 90% confidence.Additionally, the system 10 may include other communication connectionsto facilitate the transfer of information from or to the system 10.While each component of the system 10 is illustrated as only one object,any of the computerized medium 20, the human interface system 40, theprogrammable device 50 and the correlation system 70 may be formed bymultiple devices operating cooperatively (e.g., the computerized medium20 may be a combination of a processor, a server, computer code and adisplay device).

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a flowchart 110 of a method of determininga characteristic of an individual, in accordance with a second exemplaryembodiment of the present disclosure. It should be noted that anyprocess descriptions or blocks in flow charts should be understood asrepresenting modules, segments, portions of code, or steps that includeone or more instructions for implementing specific logical functions inthe process, and alternate implementations are included within the scopeof the present disclosure in which functions may be executed out oforder from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrentlyor in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as wouldbe understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of the presentdisclosure.

The method of determining a characteristic of an individual may includeat least one nonconscious element of an interaction by the individual isdetermined (block 112). The at least one nonconscious element iscorrelated with at least one identifiable demographic characteristic ofthe individual (block 114). The nonconscious element may be any mentalfunctioning of the individual that is not represented in consciousness.Commonly, the nonconscious element of the interaction may be apsychomotor behavioral element of the individual. The nonconsciouselement may be determined through a determination device, which mayinclude a computerized device, such as a computer having programmablecode, or a non-computerized device.

The step of correlating the at least one nonconscious element with atleast one identifiable demographic characteristic of the individual mayinclude a variety of systems capable of correlating data, such as acomputerized system having programmable code or a non-computerizedelectronic correlation system. Correlating the nonconscious element withan identifiable demographic characteristic may include a resultingquantity of information, which may be output. However, a variety ofother actions, such as performing a comparison of data, analyzing data,retrieving information from a database, executing instructionsidentified by a programmable code and storing data or information.

The identifiable demographic characteristic may be any distinguishingtrait, quality or property that the individual has. Commonly, theidentifiable demographic characteristic will be the individual's age orgender, or a combination thereof. The identifiable demographiccharacteristic may be one that is determined within a certain parameterof precision, or it may be giving within a broad parameter. For example,if the identifiable demographic characteristic of the individual is age,then the age may be given in terms of an upper and/or lower limit, suchas older than 50 years old or younger than 30 years old. Additionally,the age may be given in a range, such as where the individual isdetermined to be between the ages of 25 and 30, or the age plus or minusa number of years, such as 27+/−2 years, or the age may be given bydescriptive terms, such as “young” or “old”. All ranges and limits maybe given and are considered within the scope of the present disclosure.Likewise, if the identifiable demographic characteristic is gender, theoutput will include information indicative of whether the individual isa male or female.

The nonconscious element may include a psychomotor behavioral element,and the method 110 may include the step of determining at least onemodality of the individual based on the psychomotor behavioral elementof the interaction. The step of determining a preferred combination ofmodalities from the at least one modality and ordering the preferredcombination of modalities by preference may also be included. This mayfurther define a focus of the individual's attention. An order of thepreferred combination of modalities may be calculated by the equation:Σ∫^(∞)_(−∞)((ΣG_(i)(δx_(i)/δ_(i)t))/(ΣG_(i)(dx_(i)/dt_(i))))dG_(i)dt_(i)∝Ψ(G).The method 110 may also include an additional number of steps. Forexample, the step of defining a psychodynamic behavioral model and acognitive behavioral model using the preferred combination of themodalities and the ordering of the modalities may be included.

Additionally, steps relating to the production of a report may also beprovided in the method 110. These steps may include repeating the methodfor a plurality of individuals; aggregating at least one identifiabledemographic characteristic for each of the plurality of individualsdetermined; and producing a report containing at least one identifiabledemographic characteristic for each of the plurality of individuals. Thereport may be something as simple as a graph or figure that conveys someinformation from a quantity of aggregated data. If, for instance, a webpage is viewed by one thousand people and four hundred of themexperience confusion at the same passage, the aggregated data mayindicate to the web page publisher that there is a confusing passagethat needs to be clarified. Similarly, aggregated data may showdemographic information of the individuals visiting the site, such asage or gender, based on the sensed nonconscious element of theindividuals.

The method 110 may also include the step of storing the determined atleast one nonconscious element of the activity in a database. Thenonconscious element may be stored in terms of preferredrepresentational geometries via linear algebraic transforms, or by anyother storing process. The database may correspond to an identifiabledemographic characteristic of the individual.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a flowchart 210 of a program code within acomputer readable medium to determine a characteristic of an individual,in accordance with a third exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure. It should be noted that any process descriptions or blocksin flow charts should be understood as representing modules, segments,portions of code, or steps that include one or more instructions forimplementing specific logical functions in the process, and alternateimplementations are included within the scope of the present disclosurein which functions may be executed out of order from that shown ordiscussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by thosereasonably skilled in the art of the present disclosure.

As illustrated by the flowchart 210, a quantity of data corresponding toan interaction of the individual with a computerized medium is produced(block 212). At least a portion of the quantity of data corresponding tothe interaction of the individual is used to determine at least onenonconscious element of the interaction with the individual (block 214).The at least one nonconscious element is correlated with at least oneidentifiable demographic characteristic and output a quantity ofresulting information (block 216).

The nonconscious element of the interaction of the individual mayinclude a psychomotor behavioral element. The identifiable demographiccharacteristic of the individual may be at least one of age and gender.Additionally, the program code may determine at least one modality ofthe individual based a psychomotor behavioral element. The program codemay determine a preferred combination of modalities from the at leastone modality and an ordering of the preferred combination of modalitiesby preference thereby further defining a focus of the individual'sattention. The preferred combination of modalities may be calculated byan equation: Σ∫^(∞)_(−∞)((ΣG_(i)(δx_(i)/δ_(i)t))/(ΣG_(i)(dx_(i)/dt_(i))))dG_(i)dt_(i)∝Ψ(G).

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure, particularly, any “preferred” embodiments, aremerely possible examples of implementations, merely set forth for aclear understanding of the principles of the disclosure. Many variationsand modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments of thedisclosure without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andthe present disclosure and protected by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of determining a characteristic of anindividual, the method comprising: electronically recording aninteraction of an individual; determining at least one nonconsciouselement of the interaction by the individual; and calculating at leastone identifiable demographic characteristic of the individual based atleast in part on the at least one nonconscious element using aprogrammable device, wherein the at least one identifiable demographiccharacteristic of the individual is at least one of age and gender. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the nonconscious element furthercomprises a psychomotor behavioral element.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising the step of determining at least one preferredmodality of the individual based on the nonconscious element of theinteraction.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step ofdetermining a preferred combination of modalities from the at least onepreferred modality and ordering the preferred combination of modalitiesby preference thereby further defining a focus of the individual'sattention.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps ofdefining a psychodynamic behavioral model and a cognitive behavioralmodel using the preferred combination of the modalities and the orderingof the modalities.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising thesteps of: repeating the method for a plurality of individuals;aggregating at least one identifiable demographic characteristic foreach of the plurality of individuals determined; and producing a reportcontaining at least one identifiable demographic characteristic for eachof the plurality of individuals.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising the step of storing the determined at least one nonconsciouselement of the activity in a database, wherein the determined at leastone nonconscious element is stored in terms of preferredrepresentational geometries via linear algebraic transforms.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the database corresponds to an identifiabledemographic characteristic of the individual.
 9. A system fordetermining a characteristic of an individual comprising: a computerizedmedium having a human interface system situated to facilitateinteraction with the individual and produce a quantity of datacorresponding to the interaction; a programmable device in communicationwith the computerized medium, the programmable device situated to use atleast a portion of the quantity of data corresponding to the interactionwith the individual to determine at least one nonconscious element ofthe interaction with the individual; and a correlation system, situatedto calculate at least one identifiable demographic characteristic basedat least in part on the at least one nonconscious element and output aquantity of resulting information, wherein the at least one identifiabledemographic characteristic of the individual is at least one of age andgender.
 10. The system for determining a characteristic of an individualof claim 9, wherein the at least one nonconscious element of theinteraction with the individual is a psychomotor behavioral element ofthe interaction.
 11. A non-transitory computer readable medium todetermine a characteristic of an individual, the non-transitory computerreadable medium comprising: program code to produce a quantity of datacorresponding to an interaction of the individual with a computerizedmedium; program code to use at least a portion of the quantity of datacorresponding to the interaction of the individual to determine at leastone nonconscious element of the interaction with the individual; andprogram code to calculate the at least one nonconscious element with atleast one identifiable demographic characteristic and output a quantityof resulting information, wherein the at least one identifiabledemographic characteristic of the individual is at least one of age andgender.
 12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11,wherein the nonconscious element of the interaction with the individualfurther comprises a psychomotor behavioral element.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprisingprogram code to determine at least one modality of the individual basedon the psychomotor behavioral element.
 14. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 13, further comprising program code todetermine a preferred combination of modalities from the at least onemodality and an ordering of the preferred combination of modalities bypreference thereby further defining a focus of the individual'sattention.